Cycling Advocacy

24 Hours With Meurig James

A day—and a night—in the life of one insanely dedicated (or just insane) RAAM racer

greg kaplan

(Photo by Meurig James rode a triathlon bike and a Classics bike (pictured) during his 24-hour endeavor. (Greg Kaplan))

When a broken hand disrupted his plans to pedal across Pennsylvania in preparation for the Race Across America, ultracyclist Meurig (“MY-rig”) James did the next-best thing—he rode his indoor trainer.

For 24 hours.

In a bike-shop store window.

Next to a tip jar.

Bicycling checked in on James at Philadelphia’s Breakaway Bikes—once four hours in, and once with four hours to go—and spoke to him after his ride, which raised nearly $1,000 for charity.

You’re sitting on a CompuTrainer, in a store window—with a Zipp disc rear wheel.
It just looks faster.

What motivated you to do RAAM?
I’ve always gravitated towards the time trial. So this is a giant time trial. It takes metering your efforts to a whole new level. The number of people who climb [Mt] Everest every year is greater than the number who’ve completed RAAM since it was started in 1982.

In 2011, I was nearly killed by a hit-and-run driver, and spent a month in the hospital. I was very lucky; I was separated from my bike. The bike went underneath the car, and I was thrown so hard that I landed in the grass, 20-30 feet away. I remember just hoping to pass out because the pain was unbearable.

I suffered a smashed collarbone, I had glass embedded in my arm, broken ribs, two broken vertebrae, both kneecaps were broken, and a broken ankle. Due to the force of the impact, I had extreme pulmonary contusions and abdominal bleeding, and that was the most dangerous thing about everything—your lungs fill up and you can’t breathe.

A friend took a video of my first bike ride a month after. It was on a turbo trainer. I still had a cast and a leg brace on. I think I managed 10 minutes.

Is that why one of the charities you’re riding for is advocacy organization Bikes Belong?After an experience like that, one becomes acutely aware of one’s mortality. It doesn’t take much, a moment, to take a life away. I was very fortunate that I am still here. If you look at the statistics, the kids, children, riders, lose their life to negligent driving. If there’s something I can do that has one less person getting killed on the roads, that’s good enough for me.

Why aren’t you out on the road?
I was on a training ride, and hit a speed bump. It knocked my hands off the handlebar. I caught it between my pinky and ring finger and broke my knuckle. Originally, we were scheduled to do a 48-hour cross-state record attempt. I cannot ride outside now with this cast.

How many days of training did you miss?
I think one.

You have a fan in front of you a fan behind you, and a graph of your cycling metrics (power, speed, grade, etc.) projected on the wall in front of you.
It hasn’t been exactly riveting viewing. I think the Tour of Romandie is gonna be on in a bit, so I’m probably gonna try and catch that.

What kind of effort are you expending?
We’re tracking my power. Right now, my power is 160 watts. The thing is to just keep it steady. My functional threshold power is 295–300 watts. If I were to do a 10-mile TT, I would aim for 320 watts.

Meurig James's view for his 24-hour trainer ride. (Greg Kaplan)

When I walked in, at four hours gone, you were eating waffles. What will you eat when you’re finished?
I think I’ll mainly be planning sleep, more than a meal. The strategy here is you’ve just gotta keep eating all the time—small amounts every 15 or 20 minutes. I’m burning about 550 calories an hour. Realistically, you cannot take in that much—the maximum is about 400 for me. Food-wise, nothing’s not worked too badly. I’m trying to stay away from gels, which create a bit of gastric distress. Waffles are good. Quinoa is good. The wife’s been baking all sorts of things. For RAAM, I’m trying to keep as vegetarian as possible, just because meat can be hard to digest.

What does your wife think about you doing RAAM?
She’s very supportive. Next year or the year after, or sometime, the aim is to do it on a tandem.

At almost 20 hours in, how do your legs feel?
They feel actually pretty good right now. Surprisingly good. I didn’t fall asleep, but you get to a point where you can feel everything is almost closing down on you. Everything gets really heavy, you feel it around your neck. You feel very lethargic. Your legs hurt. You lose the ability to use them.

What is the most unusual thing you’ve seen from your perch?
Let’s just say it got more interesting when the pubs started kicking out last night. We had a bit of revelers. It’s a bit more entertaining than down in my basement.

You have a full-time job. How do you fit in RAAM training?
I work 60-plus hour weeks. I travel. I try not to sleep too much, and I travel with a bike with 24-inch wheels that folds up into a suitcase and goes everywhere with me. I check it as normal luggage.

What’s the record for an endurance ride on a trainer?
I have no idea. I’m probably going to pass on that one.